Yes, Chef : a memoir / Marcus Samuelsson.

"Such an interesting life, told with touching modesty and remarkable candor" - Ruth Reichl [food critic].

"In his famed dishes, and now in this memoir, Marcus Samuelsson tells a story that reaches past racial and national divides to the foundations of family, hope, and downright good food" - President Bill Clinton.

I really enjoyed this heartwarming and "feel good" autobiography. Marcus Samuelsson has had a remarkable life, but it had a grim beginning. He was born in Ethiopia and was only three years old when he, his mother and his sister, all suffering from tuberculosis, walked 75 miles to a hospital. His mother did not survive and he was considered an orphan. He and his sister were adopted by a couple from Sweden, and that country became his new home.

As a child, he so admired his Swedish grandmother's cooking and ways with food that he decided to become a professional chef. In the book, as he describes how he was advancing slowly but surely in his training, he paid lovely tribute to his grandmother: "Although I could not even afford to call her on a weekly basis during my many apprenticeships, I felt like her hands always shadowed mine in the kitchen - she had the instinct, I had the technique, and together we were unstoppable."

Samuelsson was extraordinarily determined and focused toward his goal of becoming a chef, and made many sacrifices. He felt that he was in new territory, since at the time very few professional chefs were black. Some of his achievements are mind-boggling, such when he learned French on a ship while en route to Europe so that he could take up a position at French restaurant. He provides a look into the operations of restaurant kitchens, successes and failures, with their grueling work, long hours and often difficult personalities. His life, both professionally and personally, took many unexpected turns and had unexpected discoveries.

Altogether a very entertaining book by a very intelligent and gifted person.